Community Stories

6 Stories from Volunteers, Donors & Supporters

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I had called CatVando for help and advice on trapping a mother cat and her babies. CatVando loaned me the traps, helped me set them up, transported the animals once they were trapped for the spay/neuter and took care of them during their recovery. CatVando also found the animals a new living area once they had recovered. This organization is outstanding in their caring help and support of the animals.

I worked with CatVando in capturing several semi-feral cats on the grounds of a Hospital. They were remarkable in completing the task of TNR and assisting with care. I now care for several of the cats that were trapped and neutered. Without the help of CatVando, the population of kittens has stopped. Prior to this many were taken by wildlife and did not fair well. They have both saved ktterns and saved the adult cats. During my experience with them they also saved some dogs. This organization is outstanding and always available for advise and assistance.

I met the founder of CatVando Ellen Miles over 10 years ago when I became her petsitter for her dogs & cat at that time. Over the years as CatVando came into being, I always knew Ellen to be a compassionate, caring & kind person who had a true "calling" in helping to save animals, particularly cats, from the harsh & sad situations that arise from living on the streets & being feral. Ellen seems to be a "wonder woman" in that she has boundless energy & endless knowledge when it comes to caring for the homeless cats & kittens that she finds & who are fortunate to find their way to her. But Ellen is also blessed with wonderful, caring & dedicated helpers, all volunteers who help get the various jobs done that are needed in order for CatVando to exist. I have adopted 2 beautiful kittens (Toesie & Lucy) whom I adore from CatVando and I tell all of my kitty clients, along w/anyone I know who may be interested in adopting a cat or kitten to seek out CatVando. I am grateful to Ellen & all her wonderful volunteers for not only bringing Toesie & Lucy into my life, but also for caring for the stray & homeless kitties living on the streets.

When I moved into my current neighborhood one of the neighbors pointed out the various cats and told me they were strays. I mentioned to an aquaintance that I was involved in cat rescue in California and they brought me a flyer that mentioned Catvando. I made contact and was provided traps and was able to TNR the cats in my vicinity. The people at Catvando made arrangements to have the cats neutered and provided with medical care. The neighbors commented about how fat the cats are now because they are so well fed. As an animal lover I am thankful for Catvando and the love and care they give to the strays and ferals in the Western Suburbs.

Five years ago in January, we had six cats living on our alley and new ones coming in any time soon. We didn’t know what to do. We fed them, but realized that there will be two litters probably from half of them each year and in the long run - it would financially get harder for us to feed them all. The neighbors seemed not to care and we were really desperate. I emailed almost every animal/pet/anti cruelty/humane organization in Chicago, described the situation and asked what to do. We knew that animal control takes cats but, they take them to pounds where pets get killed. After few days, I got a call from Ellen from Catvando. She came to our house, explained the whole TNR idea (we hadn’t heard about it before) and showed what to do to make cats come to our cats. What Ellen told us made sense and we decided to take a try. Within two weeks we managed to ’move’ and feed cats to our patio and slowly familiarize them with traps. Then one Friday night, we caught all of them and early Saturday morning we drove to the vet to have them neutralized, vaccinated, and micro chipped. For three days after that, we took care of them in our garage until they healed and later let them out. Since then, there have not been new kittens in our neighborhood and the cats keep coming for food every day and in the winter use shelters that we built for them.

If Ellen (Catvando) did not contact us back then and helped us to TNR our cats, by now we would probably have tens of cats. What’s worse, possibly some of the kittens would not make it through the winter… Now, the ones that are left are strong and healthy and they don’t reproduce.

I was in a desperate situation: facing foreclosure, with no money, and a garage full of feral cats and kittens. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving all these little ones behind to starve (or worse), and contacted dozens of organizations for help. Catvando was the only organization that stepped up to help me. Ellen Miles is an absolute Angel to these cats....the ferals....the ones that nobody wants. With Catvando's help, my ferals were all TNR'd, and I was able to bring several adults with me to my new residence. This has meant so much to me. I can't say enough good things about this organization, they gave me hope, and more importantly, they gave my feral cats a chance, when no one else would.